The UEFA Champions League is one of the biggest soccer events around. Heineken sought to capitalize on this with a very devious trick where girlfriends, professors, and were enlisted to convince their beaus to attend a string quartet instead of watching the game. In the cited link, you can watch the men make the painful choice to appease their girlfriend over their mates. Once at the concert, the visibly discontent victims of this prank encounter a surprise presentation of the Championship game. This video had great viral qualities. It played on human behavior and interrupted schemas. The press and blogosphere loved the video created, garnering millions of impressions. Hats off to Heineken and Kreatif360!
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Soccer and a String Quartet
Pat McCarthy
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5 Minutes with Jessica Johnson of Oddcast Part 1
Pat McCarthy
Role: Jessica wears a few different hats at Oddcast as a Marketing Manager. Not only does she do marketing for clients’ projects but also Oddcast’s services. While managing new projects, she works with both clients and analytics. Follow her @jesscapade on Twitter.
Background: In her college years, Jessica studied Philosophy with a particular interest in technology and ethics. This interest is what drove her to the word of mouth marketing industry. Her interest in how people converse continues to help her develop campaigns and track what resonates with the consumer market.
Oddcast has developed many different tools and widgets that allow users customize images. What have you found made them more sharable?
The ones that really get shared are the “do this to your friend” types. We had one campaign for Quilmes Beer and Argentina’s National Friend’s Day where people could upload a photo which was turned into a 3D image. The user then created a fake secret that would spoken by the 3D image of their friend. People loved it. Campaigns like these, with the social component built in, seem to perform the best.
What are the key elements of viral?
I think it’s important to distinguish between viral videos and other viral content. Viral videos usually keep someone’s attention for under a minute. When it’s an application that allows for personalization, attention time rises — Oddcast sees average engagement times at around four minutes. Either way, it has to be something new, something novel. Otherwise there is no reason for someone to show it to a friend. That’s why we like to use personalization in our campaigns because it is inherently new and fresh. -
Girl Scouts get in the Game
Pat McCarthy
I don’t know about you, but I look forward to buying Girl Scout cookies every year. Despite my enthusiasm, their sales dipped 1% last year. This prompted Laurel Richie, their CMO, to think about some new ways to promote their largest revenue source. That is what led to their video “What Can a Cookie Do?” This video, viewed 34,000 times since Jan 19, explains all the personal and community benefits the cookies bring. The message is clear and true to the brand image of the Girl Scouts. It sheds light on all their work that is funded by the cookie sales. This is a great example of how an old brand can reengage a community with new media. That and the video is a home run. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wy31SsNPv4
Read the full article at Daily Finance -
Share this with a Friend
Pat McCarthy
Countless people have shared a story from the Internet with a friend. It is almost strange to see an article without the “Share with a Friend” widget. Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman of the University of Pennsylvania recently produced a study that examined 3,000 randomly chosen New York Times articles based on how they were shared. You might think that controversial or shocking articles took the cake, but it turns out that awe inspiring content was the most sharable. “Emotion in general leads to transmission, and awe is quite a strong emotion,” said Dr. Berger. Though the study did not examine offline sharing, it doesn’t seem like too much of a leap to deduce that awe inspires sharing of not just articles but also products and ideas.
More on the power of awe at The New York Times -
Traditional Funnel v. Viral Funnel
Pat McCarthy
A study in viral marketing found some interesting stats on viral behavior that are worth a look for any marketer or community manager. In an examination of a 4-million strong network, researchers had four key findings:
1. Consumers stayed in their personal network, often exchanging recommendations back and forth with the same friends.
2. Recommendation networks centered on specific types of products creating a “community of interest.”
3. Trust, influence and the perception of “spam” were all purchase factors.
4. Most recommendation chains were short, ending in the initial product purchase more often than not.
Read more analysis and the 4 Viral Implications for Marketers at Randall Beard’s blog -
Coke Goes Viral
Pat McCarthy
Coke made its first foray into viral videos and came out with a smash. They placed a Coke machine on a college campus that not only gave out free Coke but also flowers, pizza and a six foot sub. The students reacted perfectly, laughing and passing around the extra bottles. I think it is worth analyzing why this video hit the mark. Unlike scripted ads and videos, Coke created a situation that elicited the desired response. They stayed true to their image while challenging the expectations of their customers. The video is powerful because of the real reactions from real people. Seeing them so happy made me happy. And that is exactly the emotion Coke wants consumers to feel when thinking about Coke.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U
Read more on the video at MediaPost -
Mobile Istanbulites
Pat McCarthy
At the recent Brand Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, viral and mobile marketing were the talk of the town. The interest in mobile stems from its unique ability to have a nearly 100 percent penetration rate. Unlike other forms of reaching consumers, mobile phones maintain their high quality of consumer connection. This is particularly interesting to Turkey where not everyone has an Internet connection but most have mobile phones.
Read more about the conference at The Hurriyet Daily News -
Generating Buzz from Solid Ground
Pat McCarthy
Many brands have tried to generate some buzz during a marketing push only to see it fall flat. While others made it look so easy, they are left scratching their heads. One of the unseen aspects of any buzz generation is the solid ground that the brand comes from. The foundational truth about a brand needs to be established before they can interrupt or challenge it to create buzz. This may be as simple as creating one talkable experience for the customer, something that they weren’t expecting.
Read more at Advertising and Marketing in Today’s World -
The Viral Freakout
Pat McCarthy
Viral hits are well known, but the development of a viral strategy isn’t always so clear. WOMMA member 360i published a very useful guide titled The Social Marketing Playbook last June that is very helpful in zeroing in on the goals of a branded content campaign and how to integrate the new tools with the old. Since most WOM is offline (90% in fact), planning for viral videos in a branded content campaign needs to extend beyond the YouTube page. You need to ask yourself how the video is driving people to talk about your brand and product. Think about the Whopper Freakout commercial. The video was entertaining and drove people to talk, but it also drove people to the business end of the campaign that got Whoppers in consumers’ bellies.
Read more on how to maximize Viral WOM at Campaign Live
Download the 360i Social Marketing Playbook -
The 10 Most Viral Videos of 2009
Pat McCarthy
Josh Warner of WOMMA member company Feed Company compiled a great list of the most viral videos of ’09. Among them are great examples of how viral video marketing works. The best use sophisticated effects while remaining true to the home video aspect of online videos. They also engage the viewer. Instead of entertaining for the length of the video, they challenge the viewer to interact.